Gaza After Three Years: From the Warmth of Home to Tents and Waiting

For Gaza’s residents, the contrast between life before October 7, 2023, and life in tents is measured in the ordinary things that once gave each day its shape: a family home, work, school and plans for tomorrow.

Before that date, the territory’s prolonged crises formed the backdrop to daily life. Yet families still gathered under their own roofs, workers earned an income and children followed the familiar rhythm of attending school.

For those who farmed, land offered work and a connection to home. Alongside those routines were modest ambitions — small plans for the next day that made the future something to prepare for, despite the uncertainty.

Three years on, the movement from homes to tents marks a stark change in that everyday existence. The warmth of family life has given way to the harshness of temporary shelter and waiting, with the routines that once anchored people’s lives now a measure of what has been lost.